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Oiled
birds cost a great deal of time and money to clean, treat and
rehabilitate. |
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Wildlives has a no-euthanasia policy.
The policy is one that everyone at Wildlives feels very strongly about:
whatever the animal, and whatever state it is in, if there is a chance that it
will recover and have a quality of life subsequently, all attempts should be
made to save its life. The alternative view (or one of the alternative
views, rather, for the subject is controversial) is that, by euthanasing those
animals that have a worse than average chance of survival, that would require
expensive treatment, or that might not survive in the wild on their own
subsequently, more resources will be available to spend on those animals that
do have a good chance of survival. Clearly, this is true - not only with money,
but also with regard to time - and staff at Wildlives have often felt the force
of this argument. When a surprisingly exorbitant sum is spent on having a
hedgehog's leg amputated, and the little creature subsequently dies, it is easy
to say that the money would have been better spent elsewhere. Similarly, the
cleaning of oiled birds takes a great deal of time, and after all the work, it
is sometimes found that the oil is much stronger and thicker than expected, and
the bird will die. |